[hawklord]

use your fingers on the keyboard is a good tip

i'm not familiar to much with mint - or the gnome desktop (i use mandriva with kde4)

i know how to do things but i think it would be better at the mint forums,

and in my opinion - there is not much command line stuff going on these days with the more common distro's

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what is the difference between madriva and the mint that i use? another question what is kde4? im sorry for all the questions just really new to this and i really want to learn!

[i0vvny0u]

what is the difference between madriva and the mint that i use? another question what is kde4? im sorry for all the questions just really new to this and i really want to learn!

[hawklord]

in a quick way,

mandriva linux is based on redhat linux and uses (mainly) the K desktop environment,

mint linux is based on ubuntu linux which is debian based and uses the gnome desktop environment,

kde and gnome are similar to windows explorer,

linux is the actual heart of the system, all the rest is just window dressing,

linux is an unix like operating system, which was mainly for servers but has progressed to desktop linux distros

[i0vvny0u]

whats a distro?

[hawklord]

distro = distribution

http://distrowatch.com/

Edited by hawklord, 27 November 2009 - 04:53 PM.

[i0vvny0u]

well i downloaded msn messenger to chat about this linux stuff...it appears you are offline

[silverbeard]

Linux is the kernel. The hardest thing for people to get their minds around is that the kernel is what makes the OS. All distributions are built around the kernel.

Most distros are based on other distos.The main ones tend to be:
Debian
Red Hat/Fedora
Slackware
Mandriva
Gentoo


These are the longest and most developed distros. Because they are Open Source anyone can use their code to develop a specific distro to their own liking or for a specific audience.

Because it's Open Source Every distro can use a a variety of Desktop Environments. From full heavy weights with very customizable features to very light and fast with limitations on some functionality.
KDE and GNOME are heavy weights and the most common. It's a matter of personal choice that I prefer KDE or my everyday needs. I've just never cared for GNOME, nothing wrong with it and I've been trying to get used to it lately (I have Linux Mint on my laptop).
Light-weight desktops like Fluxbox, Xfc, Enlightenment, IceWM and a few others can be great for older hardware with limited resources.

Again if you really want the Command Line Experience out of the box Gentoo Linux. By using Virtual Box you can mount the minimal install .iso and work through the install with the Gentoo manual open in normal Windows. There is no Graphical Installer so you have to use Command Line or you you can boot Linux Mint and use it to prepare your virtual drive and use terminal to set up the environment for the install. There is a section in the Gentoo manual on setting up the install from a Live CD. It's a good way to learn what the Command Line can do and the structure of Linux.

[fleamailman]

each distro has its own forum, this is mint's
http://forums.linuxmint.com/

help doc in pdf
http://ftp.heanet.ie...ide/english.pdf

Mint is a good starter linux since it is straight forward, for many distros one is messing about with after install, which is basically allowing yourself the right to use the non free stuff like codexes(mp3, videos, and the like)

even before you start looking at terminal commands, notice a few things about this distro, first off, you have four screens, as shown on the tool bar as four boxed, you'll see the firefox image in one of the boxes, press "Ctrl Alt and left or right arrow" to navigate between screens,useful when your are doing many things at once as you can leave certain programs running on other screens or on full screen, and simply drag windows from one screen to another here

also on the toolbar is a padlock telling you if there are updates, for example if the padlock is open it means you have some update, double click the padlock, give your password and it will tell you what updates there are, select all and, when finished, it will tell you since upon the padlock, which will be closed now, will be a correct sign on it

the only folder which really matters for you with mint is the "home folder", if you click on menu in the tool bar, you will see it as the second from top, just drag drop the "home folder" icon to the tool bar to make a direct link as it is the one that has all your data in it, it you then press the icon you can then navigate the folders, opening any target file with the "enter", but if you if you press "Alt with arrow up" you get the folder it is from but of course one could just use the mouse here

also if you open the "home folder" you'll notice the "icon view" box on the top right corner, I usually change it "list view" since that tell me is I have something in the files

lastly, in the menu again, you'll see the "solfware manager" icon, good for downloading stuff like vlc for films, but best not install "battle of westnod"from games as it is far too enjoyable

Edited by fleamailman, 28 November 2009 - 12:07 AM.